Book of The Law of The Lord - Polygamy

Polygamy

Plural marriage is sanctioned, though not expressly commanded, in the Book of the Law. The applicable text reads: "Thou shalt not take unto thee a multitude of wives disproportioned to thy inheritance, and thy substance: nor shalt thou take wives to vex those thou hast; neither shalt thou put away one to take another." Any wife already married to the prospective polygamist was given the right to express her opinion, and even to object, but not to veto the marriage. This passage seems to offer any aggrieved wife an appeal to the "Judges," but how this was to be carried out is not made clear.

Strang's defense of polygamy was rather novel. He claimed that, far from enslaving or demeaning women, it liberated and "elevated" them by allowing them to choose the best possible mate based upon any factors deemed important to them—even if that mate were already married to someone else. Rather than being forced to wed "corrupt and degraded sires" due to the scarcity of more suitable men, a woman could wed the one she saw as the most compatible to herself, the best candidate to father her children and the man who could give her the best possible life, no matter how many other wives he might have.

The practice of plural marriage has never been officially proscribed in the Strangite church, unlike in the LDS church. Only twenty-two men entered into polygamy, and most of them only took one additional wife. Strang took four additional wives, the most of any member in his church.

Polygamy was apparently practiced by a few Strangites up to 1880 or so, to include Wingfield W. Watson, a Strangite High Priest who knew and served under James Strang personally. However, with federal and state bans on the practice, and a divine injunction to obey "the law of the land," plural marriage has been given up in the contemporary Strangite church, though belief in its correctness is still required and affirmed.

Strangites reject Section 132 of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, regarding it as a forgery from 1852 that was never received or approved by Joseph Smith.